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Abstract
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Nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) are organic nano-carriers for drugs [1]. This type
of nano-carriers consists of a lipid phase including a solid fat and liquid oil and an aqueous
phase contains a solution of non-ionic surfactants or ionic and non-ionic surfactant mixture. β-
carotene is a combination of carotenoids and natural antioxidant and used as active ingredient
in dietary supplements and pharmaceuticals. The nature of β-carotene makes it sensitive
against environmental factors [2]. So, this shows the importance of its protection from the
environmental conditions. In the present work, synthesis of β-carotene loaded NLCs was
optimized by response surface methodology (RSM) and its characterization and performance
were evaluated by several qualitative and quantitative analytical techniques (Fig.1a, b). The
proposed NLCs was made from the palm fat and edible olive oil and the mixture of sodium
dodecyl sulfate and tween 80 as surfactant. Based on the obtained RSM model the impact of
fat weight, temperature and the ratio of surfactants on the nano-carrier size were calculated.
After characterization of synthesized nano-carries using SEM, DLS and FT-IR, quality and
performance of the proposed β-carotene loaded NLCs such as fatty acid profile, loading yield
and release of β-carotene from NLCs were investigated by GC and HPLC, respectively.
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